The Next Era of B2B Marketing: 3 Seismic Shifts That Will Redefine GTM Strategy

Let’s be real: The old rules of B2B marketing are being rewritten—by buyers, by AI, and by the dizzying speed of change. If you want to not just keep up, but win, it’s time to think and act differently.

Here’s what’s next—and how you can lead the charge.

1. Outbound is Out (Unless You’re Actually Helping)

Let’s call it: Outbound marketing is starting to feel like selling pagers in an iPhone world.

Why?
Because buyers are in control. According to Gartner, B2B buyers are nearly 70% through their buying process before they engage with a seller. They don’t want to be sold—they want to be smart, self-sufficient, and confident in their choices. (and that was last year’s data) I estimate that with AI, 99.5% of B2B buyers do their own research before ever talking to sales. 

The “Aha” moment:
Traditional outbound? No one wants it. The new playbook? Show up where buyers are genuinely looking for answers:

• Train the LLMs: Feed your best content into ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other LLMs so they become your marketing and sales team.
  
• Create “pull” content: Newsletters, guides, community posts, and how-tos that buyers (and bots) love.
  
• Be everywhere that matters: Ads, Reddit, G2, analyst reviews, Slack groups, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube—the buyer journey is everywhere, so you should be too.
  

Action Step:
Pick one new channel or forum this week and add value (not a pitch). Where are buyers already asking questions? Go answer one.

2. Intent Data: Stop Guessing, Start Directing

Remember when “intent data” was all the rage? Knowing what was happening in the “Dark Funnel” was a game-changer. Today, intent is happening in invisible places, like AI chats, peer DMs, “dark social,” and closed communities.

Meanwhile, buying groups are getting bigger (8-12 people, per Gartner), risk is higher, and every deal is a committee decision. The question isn’t just “Should we buy?” It’s “Can AI do this instead?”

The new formula:

• First-party > everything: Know your engaged contacts and what they actually do with you.
  
• Second-party rules: LinkedIn, partner data, warm intros, G2 reviews—these signals don’t lie.
  
• Third-party context: Track funding, job postings, company news. (Pro tip: Tech layoffs? That’s a buying signal for AI automation tools.)
  

Data Point:
Companies using layered, actionable signals, see 15–30% higher conversion rates (Forrester).
*think: second-party signals not just old-school intent data or blanket retargeting

Action Step:
Audit your buying signals this week. Are you blindly using intent data to dynamically do outbound and advertising? If so, audit the results and consider adding additional scoring and layering in more data to create your audiences and workflows.

3. Brand is Your Moat—and It’s Built in the Dark

Here’s the truth: Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room, or the channel.

Brand has always been a “thing” but it often gets put in the corner. In 2025 and beyond, trust is built in “dark social”—the DMs, Discords, private Slacks, group texts, podcasts, and review threads you can’t control. 

But that doesn’t mean advertising is dead. Instead, it’s everywhere buyers are actually spending their attention:

• LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Substack, Discord, podcasts, Twitch—the lines between personal and professional are blurring. Your brand has to be human, not just corporate.
  
• Your people are your brand: Employees, customers, partners—they’re all brand storytellers now. Empower them. And pay attention to Glassdoor reviews, Indeed ratings etc.
  

Memorable moment:
Outbound marketing is the loud guy at the party. Brand is the inside joke everyone already knows. 

Action Step:
This week, go incognito into all the LLMs, Slack channels etc. What shows up outside your own website? What are people finding when they search for you there? And consider things like Ads where you can actively direct buyers to the next step.

The Next Era Is Here. Are You Ready to Lead?

If you want to win the next era of B2B marketing:

• Show up where your buyers really are (not just where you’re comfortable).
  
• Treat every data point as a signal to direct, not just observe.
  
• Build a brand that gets talked about—even (especially) when you’re not around.
  

Because in a world of endless options, brands that are simple, helpful, actionable, and fun to root for are the ones that stick.